With hosts of local workers due to be furloughed under the new lockdown, a big rise in desperate people struggling for the first time with Universal Credit is anticipated – especially now that furlough rate has come down to 60% of wages.
Many approach local councillors for help and now some councillors are calling for a Universal Credit Hotline to be set up so that problems raised with councillors can be sorted out on a more personal, one to one basis.
According to Ainsdale councillor, Lynn Thompson, the system being fully computerised makes it very hard to sort out and help with problems when it all goes wrong.
“You used to be able to take a difficult case up with a named person in DWP in a specific office with proper correspondence records. Now it’s all in the Cloud with often quite stressed clients trying to resolve their issues through entering their details in an electronic journal on their phone.
“It seems though quite arbitrary who will respond or how much they will actually know about the case.”
Her colleague, Cllr. John Pugh, said: “Southport we know is a low wage town and 60% of a low wage is very little- so we anticipate even more problems ahead with people trying to negotiate the Universal Credit System.
“Not all will or should seek the help of local councillors, but it would save much time and stress if we had access to named individuals or a local hotline to avoid the nightmare of sending messages to the Cloud and not knowing who is responsible for responding to them.
“Only a more personal service can be sensitive to individual and personal problems with the system.”
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